

Material Girls
Witch, Please Productions
A scholarly podcast about pop culture hosted by Hannah McGregor and Marcelle Kosman, produced by Witch, Please Productions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 14, 2026 • 1h 5min
Pitty Party: 7:00 AM
Welcome back to Pitty Party, a recap podcast about HBO's The Pitt!In this episode, Gaby, Marcelle, and Zoe dig into the season two premiere, 7:00 AM. They consider who is having the best (and worst) hour and some of the gnarliest cases of the episode. They also offer their thoughts on this season's new additions: new attending Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi, med students James Ogilvie and Joy Kwon, and nurse Emma Nolan. If you're a fan of The Pitt or Golden Globe WINNER Noah Wyle, you won't regret tuning in!We'll be back next week to talk all about season two, episode two, 8:00 AM.Support the Show!Follow us on Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease and become a free or paid Patreon supporter at patreon.com/ohwitchplease. You'll find hours of bonuses — and bloopers for THIS episode — over there!Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 7, 2026 • 44min
Pitty Party: An Introduction
Welcome to Pitty Party, a recap podcast for The Pitt!Material Girls is going on winter break for the month of January and in its stead we bring you this show! Hosted by Gaby, Marcelle and Zoe, Pitty Party will recap new episodes of the Pitt as they come out week by week. To begin, Gaby, Marcelle, and Zoe look back at season one of the show and dig into what they’re most excited about in season two. They talk about their favorite characters and storylines, their respective history with medical dramas, what they expect from season two, and so much more.We’ll be back next week to recap the first episode of The Pitt Season 2: 7:00 AM.*Note: This episode contains spoilers for season one of The Pitt.*Support the Show!Follow us on Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease and become a free or paid Patreon supporter at patreon.com/ohwitchplease. You'll find hours of bonuses — and bloopers for THIS episode — over there!Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 30, 2025 • 1h 7min
Material Concerns: An All-Buster Holiday Party
Well, well, well, if it isn’t our annual All Team Holiday Episode. The real ones know that these episodes are typically out of control. This year is no different (except we were all sober at the time of recording). Tune in for a timed check-in, followed by end-of-year trivia, 2025 Oops All Oops and some light chatter about Heated Rivalry. If you’d rather not jump right into the deep end, might we recommend a mini playlist of all our holiday-themed episodes? You can work your way up to this one, by first listening to:A Holiday Special from the Archives featuring Neale Barnholden! (there is original music in this one!!)Merry-terial Girls: An Incomprehensible Holiday BonusMaterial Concerns: An All-Team Holiday Bonanza & Wicked Pt. IHappy New Year and thank you for your support! Join our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease!!Subscribe to our newsletter at ghost.io or Substack to get our 2026 update, BTS pics, and all the insider info you could possibly want. We’ll be back next Wednesday with Pitt-y Party — a mini-season all about The Pitt!Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 24, 2025 • 1h 6min
Point-and-Shoot Cameras x The Punctum
To make sense of the recent resurgence in point-and-shoot cameras, we’re returning to French philosopher and cultural theorist Roland Barthes! We begin with a conversation about the major technological shifts that have occurred in photography between 1980 (when Barthes published Camera Lucida) and today. Hannah then leads us in a theory section all about "the Punctum." Together, she and Marcelle parse Barthes' understanding of what makes photography distinct from other mediums and how Time is entangled with our emotional relationship to snapshots captured on camera. If you've never heard of "the Punctum," let this episode be your introduction to one of Barthes' more moving contributions to our theory tool belt!***Happy holidays from the Material Girls team! We'll be back next week with an Hour-Long All-Team Material Concerns episode! To learn more about the show, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca (you can also find transcripts here!).Want to support the podcast and our tiny, hard-working team? Check out all the content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease. Bonus episodes, bloopers, merch, watch-alongs, and more!Need a last minute gift for the holidays? You can gift a Patreon subscription at this link: https://www.patreon.com/ohwitchplease/giftWorks Cited: Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. Trans. by Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang, 1981. Cooke, Alex. “The Rise and Fall of the Point-and-Shoot Camera.” FStoppers 6 November 2025. https://fstoppers.com/historical/rise-and-fall-point-and-shoot-camera-715387. McLennan, Tara. “Hashtag ‘Sunset’: Smartphone Photography and the Punctum of Time.” The International Journal of the Image 7.1 (2016): 33-43. https://doi.org/10.18848/2154-8560/CGP/v07i01/33-43 Murashima, Claire. “Why Gen Z loves the digital compact cameras that millennials used to covet.” NPR 10 December 2024. https://www.npr.org/2024/12/09/nx-s1-5209770/gen-z-digital-compact-cameras-millennials-trendy. Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 16, 2025 • 34min
Material Concerns: Robust Public Transit Anyone? Pt. I
We begin this week's Material Concerns with stressing out Marcelle through vulgarity — and then swiftly turn the conversation over to a nice and long check in. of course, it wouldn't be a Material Concerns episode if we didn't do at least one other segment! We wrap up Part I with a Fixation Station that is maybe more of a Ok, Hear Me Out. Happy listening and join us for Part II on Patreon!Part II features Consumer Retorts, Creature Report and a quick voice memo dispatch from Coach to Hannah. To listen, join our Patreon for as little as $54/year! You'll get ad-free episodes, bloopers, a backlog of content and part two of all Material Concerns episodes! Go to patreon.com/ohwitchplease now to join a tier that works for your budget!***Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 9, 2025 • 1h 8min
The Lord of the Rings x Arcadia with Text Me Back! With Lindy West and Meagan Hatcher-Mays
We always nerd out, but in this episode we're joined in our geek sesh by the incredibly charming, brilliant and funny Lindy West (she/her) and Meagan Hatcher-Mays (she/her) to discuss (drumroll!) The Lord of the Rings trilogy. As you may already know, Hannah and Marcelle share a love of JRR Tolkien's world and in this episode they finally get to discuss Peter Jackson's adaptation from the early aughts.The episode begins with an overview of the books' popularity in the middle of the 20th century and their lasting impact on fantasy and science fiction literature, television and film. Hannah then offers some context for the release of The Fellowship of the Ring. Together, we consider the desire by the public to escape in a post 9/11 world and the fantasy of a pastoral utopia! Hannah then offers some theory! We're talking Arcadia people!This episode is a perfect listen for fans of The Lord of the Rings, as well as anyone who has ever fantasized about knitting in a cottage away from the hustle and bustle of industrialized cities!Works CitedFrey, Angelica. “Cottagecore Debuted 2,300 Years Ago.” JSTOR Daily 11 November 2020. https://daily.jstor.org/cottagecore-debuted-2300-years-ago/. Huffstutter, P.J. “Not Just a Tolkien Amount.” LA Times 24 October 2003. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-oct-24-fi-frodoecon24-story.html. Kruske, Kyle. “Lord Of The Rings’ Hobbiton Shire Set Took A Whole Year To Make.” Screenrant 18 December 2021. https://screenrant.com/lord-rings-hobbiton-shire-set-one-year-build/. Lois, Gemma. “‘The Lord of the Rings’: A Thematic Echo Of The Industrial Revolution – Extended Edition.” A Musing Clio 23 June 2025. https://gemmahistory.home.blog/2025/06/23/the-lord-of-the-rings-a-thematic-echo-of-the-industrial-revolution-extended-edition/. Sanders, Sam. “Tolkien Acknowledged That Black People Exist in Arda, So Why Can’t Everyone Else?” Vulture 16 September 2022. https://www.vulture.com/article/rings-of-power-black-hobbits-lord-of-the-rings-amazon.html. Shanahan, Paula. “Authentic Fantasy: The Representation of the Shire as a Nostalgic Arcadia.” Thesis. Submitted to the Department of Design and Visual Arts in candidacy for the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Design for Stage and Screen, 2023. https://illustro-iadt.figshare.com/articles/thesis/Authentic_fantasy_The_representation_of_the_Shire_as_a_nostalgic_arcadia_Astudy_of_the_visual_and_design_references_within_the_shire_in_the_film_adaption_of_The_Lord_of_the_Rings/25435744?file=45129961. Wikipedia, the encyclopedia of the people. 2025. More Info:For more Lindy and Meagan, check out Text Me Back! — one of Hannah McGregor's all-time favorite podcasts! You can also follow them on Substack here! Be sure to pre-order Lindy West's upcoming book Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane.To learn more about Material Girls, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca.We'll be back next week with a Material Concerns episode, but until then, go check out all the other content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease!Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 2, 2025 • 32min
Material Concerns: Bet On Us Pt. I
Tune in for our off-week casual conversation! As always, Coach joins Hannah and Marcelle for this Material Concerns episode featuring a very long check-in (shocking!) and an Oops All Oops segment that also goes kind of long (oops!). Plus, if you like tangents, you'll love our chat about Zac Efron's performance of Bet On It in High School Musical 2. Part II of our episode includes Left on the Table (all about Lord of the Rings) and Make It Make Sense (about what Patreon pages we love!). For Part II, join our Patreon for as little as $54/year! You'll get ad-free episodes, bloopers, a backlog of content and part two of all Material Concerns episodes! Go to patreon.com/ohwitchplease now to join a tier that works for your budget!***Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

5 snips
Nov 25, 2025 • 1h 2min
Wicked For Good x Femslash with Leena Norms
In this engaging discussion, fan scholar Leena Norms dives into the depths of *Wicked: For Good* with hosts Hannah and Marcelle. They explore femslash, questioning the sequel's queer subtext through Glinda and Elphaba's dynamic. Leena recalls a chaotic tale from the London premiere, and the trio critiques the film's staging choices that highlight LGBTQ+ themes. They also dissect rainbow motifs and the tension between queer subtext and mainstream narratives. Expect sharp insights into fandom, representation, and the film's cultural context.

Nov 18, 2025 • 32min
Material Concerns: Costumes, Boundaries, and Voting Pt. I
In this Material Concerns episode, we debrief Halloween and an Okay, Hear Me Out segment quickly gets into a conversation abut boundaries and control. If you want more, head to Patreon.com/ohwitchplease for Part II! It begins with a quick convo about Harry Potter (if you believe it!) before moving into Consumer Retorts and Make It Make Sense! Tune in to hear Coach get scolded for not voting before taking a nap.And don't forget, if you join for as little as $54/year, you'll get ad-free episodes, bloopers, a backlog of content and part two of all Material Concerns episodes! Go to patreon.com/ohwitchplease now to join a tier that works for your budget!***Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 11, 2025 • 59min
Keanu Reeves x Celebrity Studies
Happy SWEET NOVEMBER! In this episode, we're talking about LOAD-BEARING MAN Keanu Reeves. What do we mean when we say load-bearing? You'll have to listen to the episode to find out! Tune in for a conversation about Reeves' extensive and varied catalogue of (at least) 76 films! You'll learn all about Marcelle's admiration for this celebrity whose star image is colored by the public's sense of his "goodness." We talk feminism, masculinities, and Tanya Horeck's brilliant essay, “‘Too Good for This World:’ Keanu Reeves, God of the Internet." Happy listening!Works CitedHoreck, Tanya. 2022. “‘Too Good for This World:’ Keanu Reeves, God of the Internet.” Celebrity Studies vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 143–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2022.2063395. “Keanu Reeves.” Wikipedia. 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keanu_Reeves. Middlemost, Renée and Sarah Thomas. 2022. “Introduction to the Special Issue: Keanu Reeves as Palimpsest.” Celebrity Studies vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 137–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2022.2063394.***To learn more about Material Girls, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca. We'll be back next week with a Material Concerns episode, but until then, go check out all the other content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease! Patreon is how we produce the show and pay our team!Material Girls is a show that makes sense of the zeitgeist through materialist critique* and critical theory! Each episode looks at a unique object of study (something popular now or from back in the day) and over the course of three distinct segments, Hannah and Marcelle apply their academic expertise to the topic at hand.*Materialist Critique is, at its simplest possible level, a form of cultural critique – that is, scholarly engagement with a cultural text of some kind – that is interested in modes of production, moments of reception, and the historical and ideological contexts for both.Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.


